Morning Sentinel, July 8, 1999
Financial aid for education
IT IS always satisfying to see a strategy or a plan become a reality.
Many of the state's leaders have championed education and training as the method for building a new foundation for Maine's economy. Gov. Angus King made that concept a cornerstone of the platform for his second term. It is a plan difficult to reject if we are to improve -- or even maintain -- the quality of life we enjoy in the reality of job reductions at mills and factories.
Therefore we should acknowledge and appreciate the Maine Legislature's bipartisan support for the state's technical colleges, support which granted a 3-percent annual increase in operational funds and $4 million for expansion of access to occupational programs designed to fulfill a need for trained workers.
In this decade, three separate legislative reports have recommended the doubling of enrollment at our technical colleges to meet those work force demands. We're not there yet, but the recent support by the Legislature will allow 750 additional students to enroll this fall, raising the seven colleges' number of degree seeking students to almost 6,000. That's 60 percent of the recommended total.
The facilities to expand and to educate thousands more of the workers needed by current and future employers -- including those expected at the Business Super Park in Oakland -- will rely upon the Legislature's and the governor's other initiative -- a $26.4 million bond issue placed on the ballot in November.
Our leaders have put the technical colleges in a position to help us grow. We thank them for that, and in November we can do our part.